Log entry #9: Keilalahti

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-07-12
* duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
* length: 30 km

This time it was just me and Pertti, heading for a short trip to do some fishing. First we filled the tanks at the HMVK ST1 station. About 28 liters of liquid gold went in, making the average fuel consumption on our return leg from Porvoo about 0,6 liters per km (or about 1.1 liter per nautical mile).

We first headed to Lauttasaari and after consulting a more experienced fisherman over the phone, moved to the bay between Lehtisaari and Keilaniemi. Fish wasn't biting, but we cooked a nice lunch with Kabanossi sausages, at anchor near the small island of Leppäluoto.

The menu was tasty and healthy: A-class sausages, rye bread, salad with olive oil, and mint tea for dessert :)

It was soon time to head back, to give the boat to Mikko for their afternoon outing. Our route was a new one, going via Hanasaari and Käärmeluodot, and then joining the familiar route from Melkki eastward.
We had good timing, as the rain started only at Tervasaari pier, welcoming Mikko's family aboard :)

Log entry #8: Porvoo

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-07-05/06
* duration: 7 hours 30 minutes
* length: 106 km

This time we did a whopper of a journey to Porvoo and back! One way is about 53 km and 3 hours and 45 minutes without any breaks. Of course we did take a long lunch break, to test our Croatian wineholder/co-skipper. On the menu we had new potatoes, salad and finnish salmon. And all this fresh from the Helsinki market square vendors!

Porvoo was very welcoming for us; the guest harbour was full but the friendly people from Jokiranta Cafe guided us to a vacant buoy near them, and it was perfect!

We had a great meal at Timbaali restaurant and then sipped the rest of the Croatian Posip white wine while watching the sun set. The next day we invested heavily in various shops around Porvoo and headed back. The passenger ship J.L.Runeberg greeted us in the Porvoonjoki delta.

Yours truly also tried to make the return trip more interesting with some "heel-and-toe" steering :)

The highlight of the return trip was hopping on the huge waves of a cargo tanker, scary! But Summertime survived without damage.

Log entry #6: Pihlajasaari

Fact sheet:
* date: 2012-06-12
* duration: 93 minutes
* length: 16 km

Our sixth journey took us to the island of Pihlajasaari for a dip in the cold cold sea. Our Lowrance temp meter indicated a low temperature of +15,5 Celcius...brrr! During this leg we had no "älämölö" (finnish for marine distress yelling), although our aft buoy-hook-rope turned out to be a little short (13 m) for the first buoy we tried. But Veneilijän verkkokauppa will come to the rescue with 22 meters of FSE Robline RIO mooring rope.

We then headed to Suomenlinna guest harbour for some familiar salmon soup, and then back to pier at Tervasaari. Suomenlinna was packed to the max with marine holidayers, but we just squeezed in :)

Gear happy

We had a long day at the pier today, bolting the mast back in place and installing a brand new toy: the Lowrance X-4 fish sonar. We'll use it mainly to scout for underwater rocks instead of fish. And as a bonus it will show us the voltage of our boats batteries!

First we turned the boat around and backed to the pier, to have easier access to the transom. After drilling the hole, Mikko was the courageous one, measuring and screwing below the waterline, in chilly water of +15 Celcius. Routing the sensor cable to the cockpit was a mighty tight fit, but in the end it worked out, with about 5 cm to spare.

The duct tape is for demonstration purposes only, tomorrow we'll screw it down properly, connect the battery and give it a test drive. And it should also give an accurate reading of the water temperature -- what a marine multi-meter!

Docking aft-first was very handy for getting aboard, maybe we'll continue this way in the future too...